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Implementing ISO 9001 - just how long does it take?

GGogoleski | 30 May, 2007 11:42

Management personnel in companies that have little or no experience with ISO-based standards often ask "How long will it take to implement ISO 9001?". The answer to this question is essentially dependent on the level of resources that an organization is willing to commit to the project.

Having a team for implementation will work far better and provide more value than attempting to make it the pet project of one individual. In most cases, that person usually ends up being the quality manager (in manufacturing facilities) or the office manager (in service-based companies). Although it isn't wrong to have those types of folks become the project managers, it is an issue when the top management of an organization treats it as a task that simply needs completion. The upper management team should be the driving force and support of the project to help instill an attitude of commitment and value to ISO 9001 implementation.

With the right determination of resources including outside consulting help, very few companies, regardless of size, need more than a year (that's being very conservative). The timeline for implementation can be cut much shorter than that depending on how the project is handled. This rule of thumb holds true for other standards such as ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001, AS9100, ISO 13485, etc. (Be careful - some standards may have restrictions on when a company is technically ready for registration.)

In order to expedite the implementation process, a cross functional team from the organization should be brought together to "share the wealth" of tasks that will need to be tackled during the implementation. From there, duties and projects can be assigned to others to help build the employee "buy-in" for the project. When all employees have some type of input into the architecture of the business/quality management system, the result is a system that truly provides a framework for maintaining a quality culture within the organization.


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